13. Make Me Clean [Matthew] - Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

Matthew eight one two four when Jesus came down from the mountain large crowds followed him and a leper came to him and bowed down before him and said lord if you are willing you can make me clean Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying I am willing be cleansed and immediately his leprosy was cleansed and Jesus said to him see that you tell no one would go show yourself to the priest present the offering that Moses commanded as a testimony to them alright hey everybody how are you guys good happy Sunday it's good to be here with you guys I really I'm really miss Dora Pope of the way some of you some of you know that actually probably something you don't know that so there were three of us from Dora votes we pastors from Dora Pope myself Tom MacGregor and John Abraham and we were invited to is like we won the lottery you guys basically we got this email back in the fall that said you were invited to come on an all-expenses ten day trip to Israel Palestine and to come tour the site and it's like one of those emails where you read it and you're like wait did that just reads out of your mouth and you read it again you're like oh yes what's really what's happening right now is this really unique opportunity we were invited by an organization a nonprofit called the Israel collective and there are they've just existed a year or so and their basic goal is to recruit young 20 and 30-something Christian pastors and leaders to go on these trips and just expose them both to the history and heritage of Israel Palestine but also to really learn about the complexity of the situation and the tensions that are that are over there right now and to become voices to just pray and advocate for peace in that part of world and so and to have somebody help pay for you to go do that you're like what planet am i living on right now so there are about 35 people who went on the trip and just through different ways about half of that group were people from Portland different passes or for churches represented imago Dei bridge town mosaic and then and door of hope and it was so great you guys it was like going to camp it was like going to camp you know I can't but in Israel because it was like all the Portland people we were all friends you know we all know each other and so you'll be glad to know we represented Portland well we were the back of the bus I like cynical and send me pretentious and that whole do likes to that all went over well and but it was just it was remarkable you know and and so we got to both tour these ancients you know places but also to meet with these people from very very all ends of the spectrum right so we had breakfast with the Arab Muslim newspaper reporter but also had breakfast you know the Jewish rabbi and Israeli military personnel but then also Palestinian Christian pastors and they all have very different views of what's happening in that part of the world and the point was just to meet them to hear their stories and to come their own conviction you know about what we need to do and or not do right about what's happening over there anyway it was rad and I really missed door of Hope because there's nothing quite like dorva anywhere on the planet in my humble opinion so super great and I'm really glad to be back it's good to be with you guys one of the places we went is the first few days of the trip where was up in the northern part of Israel Palestine called Galilee and it's all centers around the body of water called the Sea of Galilee in the New Testament and in fact it's not a sea it's actually a lake it's a it's a big lake but it's the lake nonetheless and on the northern end of the lake is a church kind of up on a hillside which you can kind of see a picture I took from a hillside up on the northern end of the lake of Galilee and there's a church as the Catholic Church up there it's really cool it's called the Church of the Beatitudes and it commemorates a hillside with whole hillside you know up on that part of the Sea of Galilee that commemorate Jesus giving the Sermon on the Mount which we just spent three months crawling through but on our Sunday gathering and so I just thought you might want to see the mountain right that's being referred to right there because look at the first line here in in our story today Jesus came down from the mountain side after in Matthew giving the Sermon on the Mount now just you know look at the picture and so that's a mountain in Israel you know what I'm saying right so we're in the Pacific Northwest the Cascades when you hear mountain you think Mountain when you're in Israel Palestine the word mountain means Mount Tabor like Southeast Portland right so that's about how a little bit taller the Mount Tabor but that's the idea here so just imagine when Jesus has been up on this hillside he's been out there announcing the kingdom of God that it's here and remember that's what you hear Jesus talking about on any given day announcing the nearness of the kingdom of God that it's here in him and in what he's doing and so all years of all these followers so he goes up to this hillside up from the sea and just that's a typical scene right there you can see for miles and miles all around and so Jesus ease up on this hillside people are gathered around and for three chapters he's exploring and explaining what it means to be his disciple and what it means to enter into the life of God's kingdom and then today is significant because we are we finished the Sermon on the Mount and we're going into a new section of the book of Matthew as we go through it and here it's where Jesus comes down off the hillside and he starts going down in entering into just day-to-day life in these small villages and towns that kind of dot the whole landscape along the shore of the Sea of Galilee and the first story that Matthew tells us of Jesus re-entering and now bringing the kingdom not in his words but in his actions and in his reality the first story Matthew tells us is a story about this guy with a skin disease who approaches Jesus and walks away from that encounter just completely transformed and this is the setting where Jesus performed and did these very things it's a it's a wonderful quiet pretty unsealed today a fairly undeveloped part of the country and it's serene and you can see Jesus walking in bare feet in your imagination and it's awesome existential and all that right okay so but that's the setting of this of the story right here so let's come back to the story a very simple story and it's short Josh got three-quarters of chapter last week I get four verses this week it's great so Jesus comes down off the hillside all these crowds around them and this this man was leprosy assume your Bibles might have a little fitna around that word right there and in our vocabulary leprosy I'm not a doctor so I don't I'm just quoting a dictionary right now so our word leprosy has a specific reference to a certain kind of skin condition called elephantitis or Hansen's disease something like that in the Bible it's much broader the Bible refers to leprosy refers to a much broader set of skin condition so we don't actually know what this guy's deal was but he's got a skin disease of some kind and he comes and he kneels in front of Jesus and look at Exit look at verse two look at how he approaches Jesus it's really remarkable his words he says lord if you are willing you are able to make me clean so just stop and think about that I think I think most of us on a first reading what we probably heard him say is if you are able will you make me clean but that's not what he says is it do you see the difference between those two so I think most of us we would we would wonder is Jesus capable of doing anything about my problem about my situation will you do something but that is not this guy's question do you see he comes and his question is not whether Jesus is capable of dealing with his sickness in his disease do you see that right are you guys with me here do you see the effect it's a very simple little observation but it's profound what is this guy asking for he is convinced that Jesus can help he's like here you're totally able to help me how does he how does he know that well Jesus right he's been up on the mountainside the stories are starting to spread about him we're told that he has already been healing some people from their sicknesses this is the first story about an example of that but somehow he's convinced that Jesus can heal him but what he's not certain about is whether Jesus would do something like that what didn't say what he's not certain about is Jesus's character he knows that Jesus is powerful but he doesn't know that Jesus is good or compassionate because apparently his first time encountering him and so that's what the story's about with this guy he comes to Jesus and he asks are you willing would you help somebody by coming and the story's very simple and powerful Jesus reaches out his hand and touches him and notice how the story it just slows down on this moment it's just you can see Jesus's hand extending and touching it's like Matthew wants to focus and do slow-mo on this moment right here and Jesus says absolutely I'm not only capable I am willing be clean and immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy and he said something we'll talk about in a minute but that's the story it's very simple short little story isn't it you guys get it it's great the great story if you didn't know anything about Jesus let's say this is the first time you're reading any stories about Jesus this is the first story of Jesus healing somebody let's say you don't know anything about the Old Testament Scriptures and you don't know anything about Jewish culture right you can just read this story and what do you conclude about Jesus good guy bad guy good guys right compassionate or mean compassionate right concerned about the well-being of others or selfish this is because it right he's awesome right you read this very simple story you don't have to be a scholar Reyna you read it and you just go this guy's awesome I like this guy a lot you with me here it's very simple and that's how actually most of the stories in in the Gospel accounts the four Gospel accounts from to testament they're like that you read them and there's a whole lay there's just they're very simple to get in one sense Jesus is awesome he's incredible he's compassionate he's brilliant he's profound he's lucky loves others he lays down his life for others and it's a very powerful story about Jesus being willing and compassionate to move I mean how significant is it for this guy why does Matthew highlight G and slo-mo this moment of Jesus touching him what's this guy's problem he's the skin disease right so when do you think was the last time someone embraced this man and hugged him and or touched him and what happens to human beings when we're deprived of touch from other people it's not good it's not right actually physiologically bad things happen to us when we're deprived of embrace and touch from other people and so Matthew focuses on this beautiful humane compassion of Jesus to touch this man that no one else was one a touch and to embrace him and the encounter heal them Jesus is awesome so we could just stop right there you don't we could I'm not going to we could all right just walk away and be like Jesus is incredible but he's even more incredible than that just simple reading the story would would lead you to know there's a simple layer to the story as there as there are with all the stories of the Gospels they're easy to grasp but there are always layers these stories are like onions and you can you can see it's an onion and it is what it is but you can start peeling it back and be like oh my gosh there's so much more to this story and there is a lot to the story why did Matthew choose this story as the first story to put in front of us after Jesus walks down off the hillside right because for a Jewish reader for somebody who does know the storyline of the Old Testament Scriptures this this story is category breaking it just breaks all shatters everything you thought you knew about the Bible and about God in different ways and it's all wrapped up in one word look again look down at verse 2 with me there's one word that's at the center of the story the guy asked Jesus he says Lord if you're willing you can do what that they said you can make me clean now why did he say that is he dirty no does he have dirt all over over something like what and you and you might say well there's a skin disease but yes but you could have very good personal hygiene and have a skin disease okay brush your teeth take a shower so he's not dirty he's not actually dirty but he said he asked to become clean why does he use that word and then Jesus offends it he says be cleansed what is this about there's a perfectly good word in Greek and in Hebrew for healing for being healed but that is not what he asked for of course he does he is asking to be healed but there's something even more that he's asking for he's asking to become clean again and that little word opens up a whole dimension of power and significance to this short little story and I think for why Matthew Matthew puts it first and so you guys know me the story time story time down so get your copy have a sip and we're gonna we're gonna explore why Matthew puts this first with this whole concept of queenless and whole holiness and unclean this is about and why this story should break all your categories of what you thought you knew about God right because with me story time so let me tell you a story about the people of Israel go back to the beginning everything's awesome could have been wonderful but we blow it pretty good summer right so we blew it and create hell on earth and God chooses one family out of all the corrupt stupid rebellious Nations called the family of Abraham and he's going to restore blessing and goodness to all humanity through this family they end up in slavery to the big bad guy in Egypt right you've seen the movie and some Moses was raised up as a leader to rescue the people out of slavery in Egypt and so they go through the wilderness to the foot of a mountain okay here we go this is what's important and God enters into a covenant relationship with this family the tribe of Israel and he wants them to become as people and more so he wants to restore that Garden of Eden presence relationship that we were all made for but have forfeited and lost and so what God does is he wants to plant his personal presence right in the midst of this family in Israel and so the form that that takes is what the form that that takes in the people of Israel some of you know the story what what is the structure and the thing in their myths here it's a tent rot likely it's a box it's a little special box carried on poles by priests and then there's the presence of God and this cloud and so on is over it and then that goes in this sacred tent that they build to house the presence of God right at the center of the people of Israel and what's that tent called in the Bible called the tabernacle and the whole the whole point of this was that God's unique holy presence is in the midst of of Israel and so here's just one of many passages from one of your favorite books in the Bible all right Leviticus where God describes the significance and the implications of planting his presence right in the middle of the people of Israel this is what God God says to the Israelites he says I am Yahweh your God make yourselves holy therefore and become holy because I am holy you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the defiling things that are in the land for I am Yahweh who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God thus you shall be holy for I am holy what's the repeated words here in this paragraph holy alright very good class you're good guys so holy so really just here's what's about to happen we're going to we're going to take some time and learn about concepts of holiness and clean this and uncleanness and purity from the Book of Leviticus that's my mission right now okay so how many of you would want that mission right you'd be like no don't want that I'm going to put you all to sleep right now but I'm not just watch your this will be fun so holiness this all comes down around holiness and once you these are such central concepts to the storyline of the Bible really once you get these they're pretty simple to grasp once you grasp them seriously whole parts of the Bible will begin to come alive with significance and meaning and you'll begin to spot these language and ideas all over the stories about Jesus in the New Testament - it was really important so God hears here's the point God is holy and he's going to plant himself in the midst of Israel and so they are to become holy - now what on earth does holiness mean for most of us we think I think in English Western culture we think of holiness mostly in terms of morality being a good moral person you guys with me this was most of us he's so holy or he thinks he's holy holier than now this kind of thing but and when we say that we mean they think they're a better person morally than other people and morality is as a part of it the holiness in the Bible but it's just one part and it's not even the main the main part so this word that gets repeated a whole bunch of times right there the Hebrew word it's the word Kadosh Kadosh how does good job class and whatever Kadosh is you see here it's set up in opposition it's the opposite of unclean you guys with me so don't I did this there we go unclean I can spell I can stuff so you have holiness so don't become unclean because y'all are to become holy just like I am holy and your myths so Kadosh won on earth is does that mean and it's basic meaning is to be unique to be unique one-of-a-kind distinct different whatever word you want to use and because of that uniqueness somehow you're set apart to be holy is to be one-of-a-kind unique and then set apart for specific purpose so here's an analogy that I found helpful in the Bible God is holy and therefore the space around God is holy and people who are new we're supposed to become holy holy God is holy in the same way that in a hospital in operating room is holy so how many of you have ever been wheeled into an operating room before okay quite a number of us how many of you have been in a hospital before okay now that's interesting so here's what here's what that means that means there's these buildings all over town that we most of us have been into but they have a special room that you've never been into very few of us I've ever been in and only under certain circumstances and first set amount of time for a specific purpose totally right it's holy it's set apart and it's unique now what it what is that space what is an operating room set apart and holy for what happens in that room surgery right operation and what is the what's the purpose of operations for the 99% that room is set apart for people to go into and they have some kind of life-threatening condition or they have a sickness something going wrong with their body their quality of living is really bad because it's something with their body so the purpose of that room is about saving life and improving people's quality of life that's the only reason that room exists and the only reason you're supposed to ever go into that room is for that purpose you guys with me and who can go into that room so the patient alright but who what are the special people who can go into that room there are also unique set apart people so surgeons doctors and nurses and what kind of process do they have to undergo before walking into this holy space right it'd be sterilized well it's cool did you say a lot of school years of school that's true and so that's true it's this long process of becoming set apart and holy and then you have to take take off your other clothes put on special clothes wash your hands we sterilize masks that whole deal what's happening what's happening what these are rituals the rituals that are all about this reality that this is a unique whole a space that is dedicated to saving life and improving the quality of people's lives that's what this space is for and so there are all kinds of things out here that would threaten to contaminate this space right so there's dog poop on your shoe right so do you like don't wear that shoe if you're a doctor and that thing you don't think great so whatever you have a runny nose and you just wiped your hands or whatever like so call another doctor if he has a running if you have a runny nose so they do the surgery and not you so you don't drip you know your mucus into their open brain cavity or something like I guess know what I'm talking about you guys with me here so we get this this is intuitive I'm sorry I didn't I didn't say that it's nice but you have to get what I'm saying that we get this I'm trying to use concepts that we that we resonate with to help us understand what seems like this weird backwards foreign part of the Bible right so we get this this totally makes sense to us and in the Bible God's holiness is like that so God's holiness is is mostly connected we'll see this in a minute here to the fact that God is unique and one-of-a-kind as the author and creator of all life and all it is good and beautiful and just and pure and so when God takes up personal residence unless people they too are to be come like that too and reflect that in their in their own lives and so there's to be this distinction right this separation between anything that's marked by the opposite of that that could contaminate it or could defile it right and so there's actually a very clear list of ways that you become unclean if you're an Israelite read the Book of Leviticus and numbers your second favorite book of the Bible and there's very clear ways that you become unclean the rules are very clear they're not difficult it's very clear numbers chapter 5 let's just read from your second favorite book of the Bible right now Yahweh said to Moses command Israelites to send outside of the Israelite camp anybody who has a filing skin disease 1 or 2 a sexual discharge of any kind or 3 who someone whose ceremonially unclean because of contact with a dead body there you go right there skin disease sexual discharge contact with a dead body whether they're a man or woman send them outside the camp so they don't defile the camp where I dwell among them now this may seem weird and backwards to you and I thought here's the deal anytime that we open the Bible and we forget people forget this when they become accustomed to the Bible over years of being a part of a church community it's that you're you're flying to another land and another culture when you open the pages of the Bible it's a cross-cultural experience and what's funny is that many people especially in Western culture we we end up thinking the Bible of backwards or archaic or stupid and primitive or somehow but if you were to have that mindset of flying to some other country in the world today and may view the world differently it's a totally different culture and you're like I'm stupid and primitive these people so you would be called the most close-minded intolerant you know what I'm saying but we have that mindset all the time when we open the pages of the Bible this season we're closed-minded right to the Bible and we're not open to another way of seeing the world in reality and so let's just humble ourselves for a second here there's something actually really profound underneath all all of this so it seems weird to us so there's something about these these three things skin disease sexual discharge Communion contact with a dead body that they make you become unclean which is like as a status it's a state it's like having a cold for having a sickness you you wouldn't want somebody with a runny nose and a head cold who just buried their family dog in the backyard and then not wash their hands and then waltz into the operating room and start touching everything you know I'm saying less gross we get we get that and in the same way these three things mark you with the status that prevent you from coming into the holy space and you can kind of just put it together like a skin disease you can count this kind of in you can say yeah like this you're marked by disease and death in some way and so you shouldn't waltz into the holy space where the author of life is you've contacted the dead body and you know just waltzing into the holy space you can kind of kind of make sense of that now sexual discharges so we're going to talk about this right now insurance I'm going to talk about this and again because this might seem stupid to you but it's actually really it's really profound what are we talking about here we're talking about fluids unique fluids in your body that that have a union they are holy they're sacred because those fluids have a unique purpose that's associated with the creation of life right because when those flew when when man to woman make a covenant partnership with each other and those fluids mix I trust that we're not learning anything here right now so all right when those fluids combine humans are created that is incredible that is sit and life it's sacred and profound and those fluids are sacred and holy and there's something unique about them like a vise spit on the ground and then you know you spit on the ground new humans aren't creative you know it like that does not happen there's something unique and set apart about these fluids in a man and in a woman they're unique and holy and so when they went in the context of covenants on but when those fluids so to speak leaked out of your body on some other occasion that is not connected to the purpose of making new humans it makes you unclean it's like you're leaking life fluid so to speak right so I guess that's not how we think about it but that's how they thought about it and it's actually kind of profound that the reproductive fluids are so sacred and holy that when they when you're exposed to them it's like they're radioactive right they put you in this status of unclean and so what what's underneath all of this I think a simple way is that all three of these ways are becoming unclean you've come into contact with something that reminds you and that's a symbol and a reality of your mortality and death right you're leaking life fluids you've touched your dead body your skin is disintegrating or you have a disease in some way and so this is a whole cultural symbol system that's meant to say this it's meant to say that God is the author of all life has taken up residence here in our midst among the people of Israel and so we're going to honor and recognize the holiness and the goodness of God's presence by keeping away anything that would contaminate or defile it now here's two things one is the most major misconception that we tend to have about this whole concept of being in unclean and so on is it somehow it's wrong or that it's sinful and that is not the case in the Bible becoming unclean is not wrong you're not a sinner if you become unclean because you had to bury your Enza your grandfather or something becoming unclean is a natural part of the cycles of life in human in human life and so on that's not what's wrong it's temporary right you after seven days pass or whatever you take a bath go offer sacrifice and you're cleaned again that's the way it goes except for the guy with the skin disease right because he's if that skin disease goes on and it's prolonged then all of a sudden he's blocked from all contact he can't go into the holy space and so on and so what's what's wrong is not being unclean just like having a cold is not sinful we're wrong what was wrong for them was to waltz into the holy space when you're in an unclean state because symbolically you're bringing death into the presence of the author of lives and so this is what is as safeguarded against and sending them outside the camp you guys with me here so this is their culture but this is just Israelite culture this is what the people of Israel did and it was their way of honoring God's presence as the author as the author of life okay you guys are with me this is where the story goes but it's not the last word in this story here about fast forward about 500 years from Moses and and so on and there's there's this story that kind of develops this whole idea in a new direction and it's the story about one of Israel's prophets a guy named Isaiah and Isaiah lived in Jerusalem he lived right in the vicinity of the temple where God's holy presidents had had taken a resident and he has this vision is this dream or something of some kind where he he wakes up and he's in the temple he's in the very presence of the holy God of Israel and this is the story about his experience it's utterly remarkable he says in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord high and exalted seated on the throne and the Train of his robe filled the temple so he doesn't say what happened all of a sudden he's just in the temple which he would have never been allowed to do in real life that's how we know for certain this is a vision or a dream of some kind and he's right in the temple and the temple they view the temple is this connecting point of heaven and earth and so he sees God on a throne and it's like his upper half is in the dimension of heaven and his lower half is right there in the temple and so he's like he sees this image of gods robes that fill the temple and so on and then it this is a crazy dream you're like what did he smoke before going to bed that night or something all right because look at this above him were sensing these six winged creatures two wings they're covering their faces the two wings are covering their feet with two wings they're flying right now this is crazy these creatures these creatures are called Seraphim here they're called cherubim in other parts of the Bible um and you should not think about a plump baby with wing all right not that right in fact don't even think a human-like creature at all with winds there are no human-like creatures with wings anywhere in the Bible creatures with wings are always described in God's presence as being animal-like and that's exactly what these are the words Sara asked me snake so you're supposed to imagine some kind of reptilian multi winged creatures and so on Chris it's a crazy dream but it's a dream respect the man right we're sort of Zeca this and what these animals do these animals are these representative images of all creation every part of creation giving voiced praising the author of all life and so what are they screaming out they're screaming out kadosh kadosh kadosh is yahweh almighty and and how do they define God's holiness they say the whole earth is full of his glory it's not just that Yahweh is morally good or pure it's that he is the author of all life and beauty and goodness and so at the sound of their voices the doorpost he thresholds are shaking in the temple filled with smoke now you're an Israelite you are happy that Yahweh is your God and his presence is there and so Isaiah he has a vision he's right there in the very presence of the holy God and what's his response is he like leaping for joy praising God intimacy with God hooray judo what's his response look oh he says he's absolutely terrified that he's going to get incinerated on the spot look at what happens next he says woe to me this is a horrible thing that could've ever happened I cried I'm ruined I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among people with unclean lips and my eyes have seen the king the Lord Almighty I'm sure this is not good this is not good you guys that's what he's saying so he is not literally unclean he says in terms of touching dead body or bodily fluids or something but he uses this now as an image of his own moral corruption he says my uncleanness is much deeper than just my body it's my mind in my mouth and my words and my thoughts I'm a man with unclean lips and I live in a culture that speaks death that speaks and lives in a world of selfishness where might makes right of grave injustice and idolatry and that's who I am and that's my people and Here I am in in the presence of the very author of all beauty and goodness and life he's terrified because this is not supposed to happen you're never supposed to do this you're supposed to go through many rituals of becoming rich really clean and pure before you even think about going in and he's like this is the worst thing that could have happened and so look what happens next then one of the Seraphim they flew to me with a live coal in his hand which he had taken with tongs from the altar so in the temple there was a table inside the temple there's a table with bread there 24/7 and a table with coals burning incense 24/7 and so it's like one of these creatures came and gets one of the coals and it's coming at him okay it was not good it's not good at all and with it he says he touched my mouth now just stop pretend you don't know what's happening in the story is this good news you know what I mean like it's weird if you remember if I you at my house for a barbecue and I do this to you like I so hurtful it's horrible it'd be terribly painted be excruciating this is not a pleasant scene that's what I'm trying to get across here if you're familiar with the story we miss this this is horrifying and he certainly he's thinking this is it I'm done for like I'm going to get incinerated the hot coal and it's painful and then all of a sudden what happens is the very opposite of what he thought was going to happen he used the voice say look this is touched your lips but instead of incinerating him it's cleansed him it's somehow purified him it's burned him pure he says your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for which means covered so somehow he thought what would happen is that he's defiled and contaminated God's presence he's operating within a mindset set by the Book of Leviticus that says it's death and uncleanness that's contagious and it will contaminate the holy space but what he's experiencing in this krei the vision or dream or whatever is that it's just the opposite it's actually not his uncleanness that defiling or contaminating God's space what's happening is just an opposite do you see this here where this is remarkable this is remarkable because what's happening is actually it's God's holiness this sacred holy coal is not defiled by touching Isaiah's unclean lips but rather it's God's holiness that becomes contagious and God's holiness and purity and power is the author of all life encounters this man and it's painful as it purges him and then it transforms him completely and his sin has burned away so to speak you guys with me here what on earth he has no categories for this what's happening here just ideas about who God is and what's happening or just shattering for him and this is in the Old Testament and so this theme develops throughout the Book of Isaiah and this is one of Isaiah's unique contributions to the story of the Scriptures is that God's purpose was never that this remains a permanent situation and that that people are forever isolated from God this is meant to communicate a profound truth that you and I are broken and really screwed up and marked by death and sin and that God is the author of all life but the story doesn't end there this story is moving towards God's holiness actually becoming contagious and infecting the world with his own holiness and power to cleanse and transform it that's where the story of the Bible is going and so you've marched forward from Isaiah to 700 years and and you read a story like this in Matthew where you have Jesus of Nazareth who who had his birth one of the names given to him is Emmanuel God with us God's very holy powerful pure presence right here embodied in a human in the person of Jesus and so here's Jesus coming down off this hillside into the hustle and bustle of daily life in this fishing village in Galilee and the first story Matthew puts in front of us to show us what happens when the kingdom of God invades normal people's lives it's a story about this unclean man with a skin disease who for however long he's had this uncleanness he's been barred from the temple he can't go to Jerusalem he's cut off from the worshiping community he's considered unclean and here's the very embodiment of God's holy presence and in see what should happen what's supposed to happen when Jesus Explo mow Matthews loved him most into the moment for us he extends his hand and touches him what's supposed to happen in that moment what you what you would think has happened is that man impurity makes Jesus unclean that's what's supposed to happen according to Leviticus but Leviticus is not the end of the story is it what actually happens is Isaiah's vision becomes reality and Jesus is the embodiment of God's sacred power and purity it's actually Jesus's holiness that's contagious and it transfers to this man and it's like it it eradicate this uncleanness and makes him holy and pure or you guys with me say this will preach if I was a preacher this is where I would start preaching right now right because this is so powerful and again these aren't your cultural categories and so we're kind of like whoa we're learning all this at once but if you grew up steeped in this worldview clean and unclean you it's just how radical this is the Jesus comes and people's uncleanness and sin and corruption is not threatening to him it's not threatening to him at all he comes with this power and this authority right at the end of Jesus teaching the Sermon on the Mount everybody's like oh my gosh we've never heard anyone talk with such authority and presence it's as if he's speaking for God and just precisely what he's claiming to do and then it comes not just to speak for God but to be the actual presence of God moving towards people whose bodies are riddled with death moving towards people whose cultures are riddled with unclean lips with cultures of death and and selfishness and Jesus is not intimidated he moves right towards it he extends his hand and says I am not only am I able this is what I came to do I am willing this is my purpose be clean and then look what Jesus tells the man he says okay look look at her sport he says first of all see to it you don't tell anyone I'm trying to keep a low profile at least for a little bit here but go go down to Jerusalem and go show the priest what happened to you and go offer the sacrifice like you're supposed to do and this will be a testimony to them because he in the priests world view God's holiness is limited to the place of the temple and so you protect it from being defiled and so on but Jesus has come and he's shattering this and creating this whole new story where God's holiness is not limited to the temple anymore that he is embodying the spread in the contagiousness of God's holiness coming out into the world and purifying and cleansing and forgiving and cleaning unclean sin ridden screwed-up people and so Jesus says just go tell them and let your own personal story of this encounter be a testimony to them that there's something new going down here this is very powerful it's extremely powerful this is the Jesus that we worship you guys and so how does how does this how does this speak a word of God to us right because most of us didn't grow up with any of knowing any of this all right so but think of think of it this way if you're a disciple of Jesus and you have just really blown it in some way all right think of an extinct of a time were you you acted against your conscience you acted against the teachings of Jesus you just blew it big time anybody all right so right we shouldn't have to think very long or hard about that now think about what goes on in your mind after you fail or the morally or whatever somehow what goes on in your mind and what I know goes on in at least half the half of us we undergo this thing of like gods ashamed of me and and I what you end up doing is you end up actually avoiding Jesus because you think that somehow he's threatened or that you're not good enough to be near him or maybe that that you'll contaminate his goodness by your failure or moral failure or whatever so I mean you guys know what I'm talking about here so and what's what you end up doing is you end up avoiding prayer you end up avoid meeting Jesus in the scriptures you avoid other Christians you avoid coming to the sunday gathering you avoid taking the bread in the cup because you think I can't I can't go near it right I mean you guys know what I'm talking about and you need to understand that Jesus passionately disagrees with you on that point do it you know that that's just the wrong it's the wrong story you're living in a different story that's not the story of the gospel the story of the gospel tell it's this this boldness the God is not threatened or intimidated by your sin I think of it this way how many of you have have a little line in your head that says the holy God will not tolerate sin in his presence right that's probably a line many of us have heard before and do you see that that is a half-truth that if it remains a half-truth it's actually dangerous and will distort your whole view of Jesus so you with me the whole point of a gospel can can God tolerate sin in his presence you betcha you bet he can what's that story of Isaiah all about and not only does God tolerate it he moves towards it with such passion and intensity that Isaiah is forced to own it to confess it and name it and instead he's transformed by that encounter with God's holiness you with me and then in Jesus like this guys this Jesus finds this guy he's insane Jesus is God's holiness on a mission your sin is not threatening to Jesus and it doesn't mean that like you have license to do whatever the heck you want it's that dude he's not going to leave you alone he's gonna burn you clean right and that's good news for people like you and because we live in a culture of uncleanness and death and we're bred with this mindset and Jesus comes to just transform in a whole different story and so there's some of us here today and you what you actually believe is that God wants nothing to do with you because of your failure and the good news of a story like this is that you could not be more wrong about Jesus's character he's he Lord if you are willing see he doesn't doubt Jesus his ability he doubts Jesus's character but whether Jesus would move towards an unclean person like him and Jesus said you couldn't be more wrong and he touches this man and he walks away transformed and so I wonder how many of us are here today it's just good old-fashioned good news for sinners is that we were here together in a sacred space and a sacred time a unique time in place for us to worship Jesus to celebrate good news and to announce that there's hope for people like us and for a world like ours and so whatever you need to do whatever story came into your mind whatever story of failure whatever you're thinking about yourself it's not threatening to Jesus and as we come to worship and to sing and to pray and to come to the tables to take the bread in the cup come with a bold confidence knowing that Jesus has both the power and the desire to burn you clean through his holy presence amen amen let me close in a word of Prayer you

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

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Length: 48min 24sec (2904 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 19 2017